Quest For the Historical Follower Of Jesus

"THE CHURCH HAS BECOME FOR MANY A CARTOON OF SELF-PRESERVATION, A PICTURE OF COSMIC CLUELESSNESS"  - Robin Meyers

"Going to church today" is safe, predicatable, and tame.  People do not think of the church today as risky, dangerous, or subversive.  The church more looks like the world and the status quo than the world becoming more like the church.  If we are really honest about the church, nobody expects anthing truly important to happen there.  People in the world are unimpressed with the church and the things that people argue and make decisions over in the context of the church often don't matter in the end.  We have spent decades studying "the search for the historical Jesus" but what about the historical community we call the church?  Scripture says we can only know Jesus by following him.  But maybe in the barreness of religion, people can find true faith?  Maybe in the death of the church, people will experience resurrection and new life.  The church has focused on the wrong questions for way too long!  The question for the church today is simply this: "What kind of community and what would it look like to bring us back from the dead?"

What would happen if the church was driven by the justice of God rather than the justice of some political system?  What would happen if Christians really came into contact with their ancient roots and the mystical faith that has empowered Christians through the centuries?  What if Christians radically considered nothing less than authentic community no matter where it is found?  Can we leave behind communities of comformity for communities animated by God's Spirit?  This is what much of the church looks like in the global Southern hemisphere of the world.  What about Europe and the American West?  Or here is another picture from Robin Meyers,

"Jesus was political.  He was a dangerous subversive, not because he wanted to help individuals escape a perishing world and make it "up" to heaven, but because he wanted to bring heaven's justice "down" to earth" (The Underground Church, p.56-57).